If she's in it then I'd like to see Asaj Ventress. Not saying this as a fanboy thing necessarily, but when you consider that George Lucas already had her planned to be the main villain in Star Wars 2 before settling on old git Count Dooku, this isn't too far a geeky thing to wish for.

If she's in it then I'd like to see Asaj Ventress. Not saying this as a fanboy thing necessarily, but when you consider that George Lucas already had her planned to be the main villain in Star Wars 2 before settling on old git Count Dooku, this isn't too far a geeky thing to wish for.

Asajj vs Rey!Ventress is Supreme Leader Snoke!

The Emperor was originally voiced by Clive Revill for that scene, and visually portrayed by Elaine Baker, the wife of make-up designer Rick Baker.

Hoai-Tran Bui wrote:With a different director from sequel to sequel, it would have been great synergy for Lucasfilm to get the director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi to write the script treatment to its follow-up, Star Wars Episode 9. In fact, that’s what was reported back in June 2014, when it was announced that Rian Johnson would create a treatment upon which Episode 9 director Colin Trevorrow and screenwriter Derek Connolly would build the movie.

But alas, that was not meant to be, as Johnson himself confirmed that he has taken no part in the Star Wars Episode 9 treatment.

This makes me curious about the overall story arch for the sequel Trilogy. I may have heard the answer before, but I can't recall. Did someone (individual or group), or the Star Wars Story Group maybe, create the overall story to this Trilogy? Is the overall story from Lucas's notes?* Or are they essentially winging it from film to film (I know they aren't but I wanted to offer a humorous extreme option)? It would seem that The Force Awakens couldn't start without knowing how Episode 9 would end. I'm just curious as to who created this story.

*I know that The Force Awakens had little to nothing to do with the treatment that Lucas wrote, but I wonder if maybe the overall story of the trilogy is his - with the overall prequel story being the birth of the Empire, fall of the Republic, and the rise of Anakin/Vader....and the overall story of the Original Trilogy being the eventual victory of the Rebellion, fall of the Empire/Emperor, ultimate redemption of Anakin/Vader, and Luke's rise as a Jedi.

JJ, Kasdan, and Arndt get credits for The Force Awakens, Johnson gets credit for The Last Jedi, and Lucas gets "based on characters created by" credit on both. But who engineered the story for the trilogy itself?

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I liked Jurassic World better than Jurassic Park, two versions of the same basic story, its a little like how Hitchcock remade a couple of his own films, except he kept the exact same titles.

I was never all that invested in the franchise, didn't see 2 or 3 in theatres, went to see World at a drive-in on the cheap. Pratt makes the movie watchable for me but I probably have the most enjoyment picking apart all of the plot holes and trying to predict which character is going to get killed next. but that has always been the fun of watching big, dumb f/x-laden action/adventure popcorn movies.

I still want to know what happened to the pterodactyls we saw flying off into the sunset at the end of 3, so maybe they will address that in 5

Jesus Christmas.I want to cut off my penis and kill every man on Earth after that.

Why does THAT scene have to represent sexism/misogyny/etc. to so many of these writers? Pardon my privilege, but I don't see it, didn't see it, and will never see it. Why? Because I'm pretty willing to bet that the gender of the victim has ZERO importance next to the epic death itself. One of the characters is quoted as saying something to the effect of things now need to be bigger, louder, and faster. Really, that's a not-so-subtle way of describing Jurassic World. JP had the t-rex killing the lawyer on the toilet. Lost World had the two dinosaurs pulling the guy apart. I remember almost nothing of JP3, but I'm willing to bet there's an epic death there, too. The death in JW is just a natural progression.

The rest of the article is shit, too. Hope she got it all out.

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oh god, "Kayleigh", I can envision her lily-white, entitled, over-privileged upbringing without even trying. sorry, but when upper class white women start complaining about how unfair things are in their lives because....men, I find it hard to take them very seriously. there is probably some female writer of color out there that would be tearing Kayleigh a new ass right now about how under-represented Black female writers are in entertainment and how she is tired of rich white girls getting bylines instead, or how all a rich white girl has to do to have a multi-million dollar career is show some tits and ass and/or screw the right guy. you don't see any Black version of Paris Hilton or Kim K or Kylie Jenner, do you.

maybe Kayleigh should be asking why 53% of white women voted for a misogynist like Trump for president, it might help her get closer to the answer of why women directors aren't given more jobs and bigger movies instead of the tired old, "men are bad" line.

Neil Turitz wrote:When the news broke the other day that Lucasfilm had fired the directing team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller off its Han Solo spinoff flick, a few things came to mind. First and foremost, there was the shock of a major project like this making such an enormous move, especially, ahem, five months into shooting.

After that, I took a moment to see what people were saying, and it came out that Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy wasn’t happy with the style and tone of the film that Lord and Miller were making, which led me to the second reaction, which was, “Well, jeez, who did she think she was hiring?” I mean, these are the guys behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street and its sequel, 22 Jump Street, and The LEGO Movie.

In other words, while the pair is immensely talented, these guys are not exactly Merchant and Ivory.

But after pondering that for a short spell, something else popped into my head, as I considered the history of Lucasfilm projects and one or two external incidents that directly relate to this particular cinematic universe. It was a dark thought, a sinister one, that I turned around a bit before I finally allowed myself to verbalize it, at which point I realized that, in even asking the question, I already had my answer.

Does Lucasfilm have itself a Director Problem?

After having given Warner Bros. so much guff for its issues with directors on the DC Comics movies, it would be unfair not to come to a similar conclusion here, simply because this is what the evidence suggests.

Most of the people reading this will be aware of the stürm und drang that surrounded last year’s Lucasfilm production of Rogue One, which essentially replaced director Gareth Edwards with Old Pro Tony Gilroy, as the experienced Gilroy came in with massive rewrites and directed large reshoots which, apparently (depending on who is talking) reshaped a good portion of the movie. That, in and of itself, should have been something of a red flag, but now this happens, and the central issue is inescapable.

And we haven’t even gotten into the catastrophe that is The Book of Henry, which is basically one of the worst reviewed films of the year, is going to be a major flop, and is a pretty large setback to its director, Colin Trevorrow. This is only important, mind you, because he is the man charged with writing and directing Episode IX of the Star Wars saga, due in theaters Memorial Day Weekend, 2019.

Apparently, the big difference between Lord and Miller and Edwards is that, when confronted with the idea of bringing in outside help to reshape things and oversee reshoots, Edwards said, “Sure, okay,” while Lord and Miller were not as eager to play along. This did not sit well with Kennedy, who has a very tight hold on all things Star Wars-related, and so she pulled the trigger on them, to the great and utter shock of Lord and Miller, who figured, naturally, that things would work themselves out.

There are a bunch of interesting factors here, not least of which is Kennedy’s desire to bring in hot, young, up-and-coming filmmakers, then refusing to allow them to do the things that drew her attention in the first place. For instance, with Lord and Miller, their style is much more loose and improvisational than what Kennedy is used to, as well as writer — and long time stalwart of the Lucasfilm Universe — Lawrence Kasdan, whose attitude is “You shoot the words that are on the page and don’t make them up as you go.” It seems he was at odds with Lord and Miller right from the start, so when they rejected out of hand the notion of dealing with someone else to come in and “help” them, it was time to let them go.

No matter, by the way, that some folks in the know were admirers of what the pair was doing, even while those same folks admitted it wasn’t a conventional Star Wars film, which was Kennedy’s whole point. Of course, others have said they were overmatched, out of their depth, and should never have been hired in the first place, so I think the only thing on which we can agree here is that no one is agreeing on anything.

Either way, the two just weren’t a good fit, whereas Rian Johnson, currently in post-production on December’s The Last Jedi, understands the Universe perfectly and, word has it, has Kennedy and her team very happy with his cut of the film. Which means that, if you liked The Force Awakens and Rogue One, you’re going to love Jedi.

Trevorrow is another issue, in that, while the Book of Henry fiasco might make him more pliable for Kennedy, the legitimate question has to be asked about whether or not he is up to the task. While I quite like his first film, Safety Not Guaranteed, I can’t say the same about his second, Jurassic World, which might have made a ton of money (and got a lot of good reviews I never quite understood), but just isn’t a good movie. Don’t get me wrong, I’m rooting for him, but this has to be of some concern to those in charge.

There’s also an important fact here that can’t be ignored: none of this is new. Lucasfilm has always had a director problem. George Lucas directed four of the first six, and while the first one is great, it’s also, in hindsight, badly flawed, and the three prequels are awful. When he brought in his film school professor, and old pro helmer, Irvin Kershner to direct The Empire Strikes Back, he let Kershner run the show without any real supervision, then was furious when the film didn’t really turn out the way he envisioned, even though it is by far the best film of the series.

It’s for that reason, in fact, that journeyman Richard Marquand was hired to helm Return of the Jedi, so that Lucas could control every aspect of the production and thus not have to deal with his personal vision being corrupted, as it had been with Kershner. There are tons of stories out there of how ineffectual Marquand was on set, as if he was nothing more than a proxy for the boss. Which, essentially, he was.

Which is sort of where we are now. It has become exceedingly clear that anyone signing up for one of these gigs in the future will have to be well aware what they’re in for, and then make the decision about whether or not being a sort of puppet for his or her Lucasfilm Overlords is how they want to spend a couple years of their career. Yes, it’s an insane opportunity to make a Star Wars film, but there are going to be a fair number of auteurs who will pass on the offer, simply because, while they might want to play with someone else’s toys, they won’t want to be instructed by said toy owner exactly how they’re allowed to play with them.

Yesterday, Ron Howard stepped into the director’s chair, a seasoned pro whose best films are in the rearview mirror, but who will almost certainly come in and do a professional job of fulfilling Kennedy’s vision, in a way that first Edwards, and then Lord and Miller, weren’t.

Because let’s face it — at this point, what has become obvious is that the vision to be fulfilled, from here on out, is Kennedy’s, and woe be to any director who thinks differently.

Mike Fleming Jr wrote:EXCLUSIVE: Put Rian Johnson atop the short list of directors who might replace the recently departed Colin Trevorrow in Star Wars: Episode IX. Insiders said that nothing is done yet, but that prospect is certainly in the air right now. The Looper helmer fit seamlessly into the Lucasfilm machine, which is no small feat given the number of star directors who’ve been chewed up and spat out under the “creative difference” line in exiting Star Wars movies.

Deadline was first to tell you that Ron Howard was top choice to replace Phil Lord & Chris Miller as director of the Han Solo spinoff movie, and that came to pass. If Johnson, who directed the December 15-launching Star Wars: The Last Jedi, does in fact come back to take the reins of the next movie, it would somehow seem like destiny. When Deadline revealed that the Looper helmer was being hired to take on Star Wars, the original intention was for him to direct two movies. Stay tuned. It might come to pass.

The other takeaway regarding the exit of Trevorrow, it is that when it comes to the billion-dollar Disney silo machine, the auteur director takes a back seat to the star studio chief. In this collision of art and extreme commerce, directors who are changeable are the ones who succeed in these kinds of films. We’ve seen Marvel’s Kevin Feige replace directors of Marvel superhero movies and rule with an authoritative my-way-or-the-highway mind-set that has led to an unprecedented string of audience-pleasing blockbuster hits. We are seeing the same thing with Kathy Kennedy on the Lucasfilm side. We’ve now seen the Jurassic World helmer Trevorrow follow Lord and Miller out the door, which followed the previous exit of Josh Trank. And the sort-of exit of Gareth Edwards, who completed principal photography on the spinoff Rogue One, but it is the worst kept secret in Hollywood that Tony Gilroy supervised the directing of the re-shoots that put Rogue One back on track as another billion-dollar grossing Star Wars film.

Lord & Miller are being mentioned to possibly return to direct the DC pic The Flash (though Robert Zemeckis has also been mentioned for that film); maybe Trevorrow will step back in and direct the Jurassic World sequel? The Star Wars director fallout is creating a lot of intrigue around town.

Vulture September 8, 2017:Colin Trevorrow’s Firing From Star Wars Is Another Reminder That No Director Will Ever Be Bigger Than the Franchise

Chris Lee wrote:Earlier this week, a disturbance in the Force triggered paroxysms of anguish and confusion across the galaxy. That is to say, since the Tuesday announcement of Colin Trevorrow’s firing as director of Star Wars: Episode IX (with Lucasfilm reaching the conclusion that his and the company’s “visions for the project differ”), Hollywood’s chattering class has been trying to figure out: How did this bona fide blockbuster filmmaker come to be laid so low?

Conspiracy Theory A maintains that The Book of Henry — Trevorrow’s critically mauled, commercially stillborn art-house passion project — which arrived as the June follow-up to his $1.6-billion-grossing sophomore co-writing/directorial effort Jurassic World — may have given Lucasfilm cold feet. Star Wars remains, after 40 years, eight films, and a combined $7.5 billion at the box office, arguably moviedom’s most valuable intellectual property. And Henry’s craptacular reception exposed glaring liabilities in the director’s ability to make the jump to lightspeed, as the thinking goes.

But to hear speculation from a ranking Hollywood movie insider with direct knowledge of the productions on both The Book of Henry and Jurassic World (and who requested anonymity out of concern for sensitive ongoing business relationships), Trevorrow’s firing may have come more directly as a consequence of being “difficult.”

“During the making of Jurassic World, he focused a great deal of his creative energies on asserting his opinion,” the executive explains. “But because he had been personally hired by Spielberg, nobody could say, ‘You’re fired.’ Once that film went through the roof and he chose to do Henry, [Trevorrow] was unbearable. He had an egotistical point of view— and he was always asserting that.”

Then, during preproduction on Episode IX, Trevorrow’s relationship with Lucasfilm top brass became reportedly “unmanageable” over the course of “repeated stabs at multiple drafts” of the script.

“When the reviews for Book of Henry came out, there was immediately conjecture that Kathy was going to dump him because they weren’t thrilled with working with him anyway,” the executive continues. “He’s a difficult guy. He’s really, really, really confident. Let’s call it that.”

Kathy, of course, is eight-time Academy Award–nominated Lucasfilm president/Star Wars brand manager Kathleen Kennedy, who found herself beneath the red-hot scrutiny of Movie Twitter in June after firing co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller from the Han Solo spinoff prequel. And in terms of that surfeit of self-belief, Trevorrow admitted to as much in an interview with Esquire in 2015. “Directors require a level of confidence that can border on the delusional,” Trevorrow said. “You have to push it right up to the edge of arrogance, but never cross the line.”

Which really would be nothing new in an industry where gigantic egos are as common as Tesla Xs, and directors convinced of their own Kubrickian greatness come a dime a dozen. But by the point of his supernova success with Jurassic World, it’s worth noting Trevorrow had become inextricably linked to the scourge of white male privilege in Hollywood. In an era when men are almost 12 times more likely to direct movies than women, and minorities continue to lose ground as directors (according to the 2017 Hollywood Diversity Report), he landed the coveted Jurassic job on the strength of a single film, the quirky 2012 Sundance sci-fi dramedy Safety Not Guaranteed.

This evolved into such an inescapable talking point, Trevorrow even admitted to the Los Angeles Times, “[It] hurts my feelings when I’m used as an example of white male privilege.”

Still, the decision to bounce him from the project ultimately fell to Kennedy, who, five years into her Lucasfilm tenure, is showing less and less compunction about firing or replacing directors she feels are temperamentally or creatively unsuited to the job, having also overseen the resignation of Fantastic Four director Josh Trank from another stand-alone Star Wars film in 2015.

“There’s one gatekeeper when it comes to Star Wars and it’s Kathleen Kennedy,” says a veteran movie producer, who has worked with the studio chief. “If you rub Kathleen Kennedy the wrong way — in any way — you’re out. You’re done. A lot of these young, new directors want to come in and say, ‘I want to do this. I want to do that.’ A lot of these guys — Lord and Miller, Colin Trevorrow — got very rich, very fast and believed a lot of their own hype. And they don’t want to play by the rules. They want to do shit differently. And Kathleen Kennedy isn’t going to fuck around with that.

Mike Fleming Jr wrote:UPDATED: The deal is done, with Disney confirming Deadline’s scoop. Abrams will direct and also co-write the film with Chris Terrio. See the official press release at the bottom of the story.

EXCLUSIVE:Rian Johnson decided not to take the offer to come back and replace the recently departed Colin Trevorrow on Star Wars: Episode IX. Now, Disney and Lucasfilm are courting another director for an encore, the one who relaunched the franchise to dizzying heights. Deadline hears the studio is in talks with JJ Abrams, and sources said they are trying to work out a deal for him to return. This is expected to happen today.

Abrams revived the franchise with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, whose $2.06 billion worldwide gross made it the third highest-grossing film of all time behind James Cameron’s Avatar and Titanic.

Abrams is in discussions to replace Trevorrow, who exited the picture after creative differences with Lucasfilm and its chief Kathleen Kennedy. All this happens as Ron Howard stepped in to replace Phil Lord & Chris Miller as director of the Han Solo spinoff movie.

Johnson’s film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, launches December 15. Abrams has been producing everything from Westworld to M:I6-Mission Impossible, and the Stephen King anthology series Castle Rock, and conveniently doesn’t have a next film to direct. And he certainly can be a steadying hand in settling The Force. He’s repped by CAA.

J.J. Abrams, who launched a new era of Star Wars with The Force Awakens in 2015, is returning to complete the sequel trilogy as writer and director of Star Wars: Episode IX. Abrams will co-write the film with Chris Terrio. Star Wars: Episode IX will be produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Abrams, Bad Robot, and Lucasfilm.

“With The Force Awakens, J.J. delivered everything we could have possibly hoped for, and I am so excited that he is coming back to close out this trilogy,” said Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy.

Pamela McClintock wrote:Disney made a slew of changes to its upcoming calendar on Tuesday, including pushing back the release of Star Wars: Episode IX by seven months following the announcement that J.J. Abrams is taking over directing duties.

Episode IX will now open in theaters Dec. 20, 2019, instead of May 24, 2019. The tentpole is swapping places with another high-profile title, the live-action adaptation of Aladdin, which had previously occupied the Dec. 20 date.

I liked The Force Awakens enough. No problems there for me. But the news about the release date makes me happier. The sequel trilogy being released in December has been perfect. Not only is it a fun event between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but as far a merchandising goes, it's the logical release time - putting the peak of the hype train at holiday shopping time.

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My complaints about Episode 7 are small. Just like my expectations and what it takes to please me. JJ is the King of Adequacy and it doesn't matter if the movies he makes could be much more grander and moving and emotionally more impactful as well as original, none of that shit matters. As long as I get a film that is not shit and is solidly OK. The Empire Strikes What?

If there is one thing Paramount chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos could use right now, it's the hope of a few hit movies. He inherited a pretty bare cupboard when he took over the studio in April, and the crushing failure of Darren Aronofsky's mother! over the Sept. 15 weekend did not help in terms of revenue or perception.

One promising thing Gianopulos found waiting for him at the studio was the prospect of a movie directed by J.J. Abrams. The filmmaker has made his home at Paramount since 2006 with a deal now said to be worth a hefty $10 million a year in overhead and development. It is very possibly the last, richest deal of its kind. But if Gianopulos hoped that pact soon would bear fruit in the form of an Abrams-directed project — which Paramount hasn't had since Star Trek Into Darkness in 2013 — he soon learned that it was not to be.

His predecessor, Brad Grey, had tried to ensure that such a film was next on Abrams' dance card. Grey was known to be furious when Abrams, in January 2013, signed on to direct Star Wars: The Force Awakens for Lucasfilm and Disney. He didn't understand how Abrams' generous deal with his studio could allow the director to take the job. So once Abrams finished his duties on Force Awakens, which was released in December 2015, Grey entered into a renegotiation obligating Abrams to direct his next movie for Paramount.

Jump forward in hyperspace to Sept. 5, when Lucasfilm parted ways with Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow, who was supposed to write and direct Star Wars: Episode IX. With the movie scheduled for a May 2019 release, Lucasfilm needed a replacement fast. "The question was, who can drop into this world and get it done?" observes one source with knowledge of the situation. There also were the optics, with Ron Howard having just been brought in to take over the young Han Solo spinoff after Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired. Lucasfilm did not need a prolonged who-is-going-to-direct-this-movie debate on the internet.

The solution was Abrams, 51, and though the release date was pushed to December 2019, the pressure remains. With the script still unwritten, Abrams is going to be occupied for the next two years. (His deal at Paramount runs through summer 2018, long before he finishes his work in a galaxy far, far away.) The director declined comment, but a source in his camp says he was enticed by a "once-now-a-twice-in-a-lifetime opportunity," and all parties understand that.

As for Gianopulos, the exec accommodated the move even if he was not happy, say sources. Paramount declined comment, but the studio chief is said to be irked to see Abrams get poached again — this time despite a specifically negotiated obligation. But fighting Abrams would have meant alienating the filmmaker and taking on major adversaries: Lucasfilm, Disney and possibly even Steven Spielberg, who isn't involved with Star Wars but has a long-term association with Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy and has taken credit for luring Abrams to helm The Force Awakens in the first place. And then there are Abrams' reps at CAA. With Paramount in need of all the support it can get, Gianopulos had to be realistic.

In these circumstances, sources say he did the best he could by extracting some money from Disney for maintaining Abrams in the style to which he has become accustomed. But the payment is said to be a one-time shot of less than seven figures, which isn't much to cover a two-year absence. A Paramount insider disputes that, saying the figure is higher. And obviously, given a choice between taking that negligible payment or having a film that could make money and boost Paramount's prestige, Gianopulos would have jumped at the latter.

But even if Gianopulos had been willing to take on the forces arrayed against him, one former studio chief says there's no point in trying to force a person to direct a film. "Saying, 'You're going to do something for us' and handing them millions of dollars for that project, you're putting yourself in great peril," he says. When it comes to rich deals, he adds, "How to enforce them is as complicated as the deals themselves."

So what has Paramount gotten from Abrams in his 11 years at the studio? As a director, three films: Two Star Trek movies and Super 8, which grossed $260 million worldwide in 2011. Abrams also has been a producer on several films, including three Mission: Impossibles, a third Star Trek, two Cloverfield films and a third set for release in February. Throughout his career, Abrams' films, directed or produced, have grossed more than $5.7 billion.

Still, Abrams has not fulfilled the hope that the late Grey had when he hired him to direct his first film, Mission: Impossible III, back in 2006. "We think J.J. is the next Steven Spielberg," said Grey at the time. Maybe it's more accurate to say Abrams is a Spielberg for the 21st century. His commercial instincts, his gift for salesmanship and his skill with reboots have kept him in a rich movie deal at Paramount as well as a very rewarding TV deal at Warner Bros., even if neither studio is getting as much of his attention as they would like.

Abrams is "operating a machinery, an enterprise," says one producer of his string of hit movies. And if Paramount didn't want to accommodate Abrams, someone else would snap him up "in a New York minute."

Paramount likely will attempt to renew Abrams' deal; he's valuable enough that two years is not too long to wait for his services. "You might not put him in the pantheon [alongside Spielberg]," says one studio insider, "but he's a writer, producer and director. There aren't too many of those guys." With Star Wars again beckoning, says this person, "You can't be an asshole and say no. You do the right thing, and hopefully people repay that."

it is going to be about how Benicio del Toro's character is really a jedi gone rogue and after the events of Last Jedi he has a change of heart and decides to train and lead all the space urchins out there who are spontaneously manifesting Force powers now to create a new Jedi Order to provide the galaxy with wisdom and guidance.